Elvira: rock's biggest fan

Long before she became the buxom screen horror babe Elvira, Cassandra Peterson was a rock-'n'-roll groupie. In her teenage days, she shared a bed with Elvis Presley, cozied up to Jimi Hendrix ...

Long before she became the buxom screen horror babe Elvira, Cassandra Peterson was a rock-'n'-roll groupie.

In her teenage days, she shared a bed with Elvis Presley, cozied up to Jimi Hendrix and rejected Jimmy Page, who ``chased her around his hotel room.''

We chatted with the 59-year-old star via telephone from Santa Barbara, Calif., about her upcoming appearance on the VH1 Rock Docs special Let's Spend the Night Together: Confessions of Rock's Greatest Groupies.

The show is based on the book written by fellow groupie Pamela Des Barres, a pal of Peterson and ``one of the sweetest people ever.''

Des Barres had the idea to film the sordid stories of the six women who had intimate relations with such icons as Robert Plant, Jim Morrison, David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Peter Frampton.

Peterson's tales are the least shocking of the bunch.

``I was a groupie from the age of 14 to 17,'' she says. ``The whole time I was trying to avoid losing my virginity.''

That didn't stop some rockers from trying. She admits, ``Tom Jones was a total a--.''

Mention the words ``tour bus,'' and Peterson can't help but chuckle. ``When I was 14, I went to a Paul Revere & the Raiders concert. During the last song, I ran outside and found their [tour] bus,'' she remembers. ``The door was open, and I jumped in and hid in a trunk.'' They found her hours later. ``I got in serious trouble with my parents that night.''

A lover of rock, she wasn't a groupie to hunt down guys. ``I was a music freak, so I had to like the music in order to chase the band.''

Some of her targets included The Yardbirds and Buffalo Springfield.

Drugs and sex not included, she'd hang out with them at a hotel and do things like ``wash their hair and draw paintings.''

Her fondest memories involve two of rock's greatest.

``I had the most fascinating conversations with Hendrix,'' she says. And ``Presley was so kind and sweet.'' And behind closed doors, both were gentlemen.